Words of Advice: Design Challenges

In a recent Design007 survey, we asked the following question: "What are your biggest design challenges?" Here are just a few of the replies, edited slightly for clarity.

Scott Decker, Collins Aerospace: Getting complete information from the electrical engineers. Well-defined constraints that are correct and thought out, not winged. And good mechanical data transfer; sometimes, it just isn’t any good.

Steve Knobel, Denel Dynamics: 20 GHz+ PCB layouts. Too many components in a very restricted space. Time to market.

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Cadence Design Systems recently integrated more of its Sigrity capabilities into the front end of its PCB design tools. During DesignCon, Chris Banton of EMA Design Automation spoke with me about how this drive for “model-less analysis” benefits the PCB designer who can now access signal and power integrity, DFM, and electrical rule checking functionality early in the design process and have fewer issues later.

At DesignCon, I met with our old friend Todd Westerhoff, a veteran signal integrity engineer. Todd joined Mentor, a Siemens Business, since we last spoke. We discussed his new job responsibilities, his drive to get more designers and engineers to use SI tools, and the increasing value of cost-reduced design techniques versus overdesigning PCBs.

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Words of Advice: Design Challenges

In a recent Design007 survey, we asked the following question: "What are your biggest design challenges?" Here are just a few of the replies, edited slightly for clarity.

Scott Decker, Collins Aerospace: Getting complete information from the electrical engineers. Well-defined constraints that are correct and thought out, not winged. And good mechanical data transfer; sometimes, it just isn’t any good.

Steve Knobel, Denel Dynamics: 20 GHz+ PCB layouts. Too many components in a very restricted space. Time to market.

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